


Bright Lights

by Starshaker



Series: Behind the Scenes [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Arguing, Asexual Character, Asexual Hux, Established Relationship, Frustration, Hux-centric, M/M, Movie Star AU, Wedding Planning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 16:07:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7580944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starshaker/pseuds/Starshaker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux has had a long day and its only lunch time. Kylo has been interfering with his schedule, the weather has been an unrelenting heat wave for weeks now and his increased workload threatens to turn him into something that unnerves him to his very core. </p><p>And then he finds out that Kylo has been secretly planning their wedding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bright Lights

“Phasma, why is next August booked off without any notes?” Hux asked as he joined Phasma in Ren’s trailer. The sun and heat had been consistently rising for the two weeks they’d been on set and the trailer’s air con was a welcome relief after Hux’s uncomfortable taxi ride in.

“Ren said you’d be busy,” She said as she set a thin file down on one of her three stacks in front of her on the table, “Requested the month for personal reasons,” 

“Personal reasons?” Hux asked, he raised an eyebrow and she shrugged.

“You’d best ask him,”

“I thought you knew everything,”

“I know you’re taking the month off with Ren, I don’t need to know any more,”

“Is he still on set?” Hux asked as he grabbed a couple of snacks from the cupboards. Their stash of food here was getting low, he’d have to put in a request for more tomorrow or ask Phasma to pick up some stuff.

“Studio 8, they’ll be done in ten,”

“I’ll meet him there,” Hux said, “Anything new for this afternoon?” He asked as he gathered his and Ren’s lunch from the fridge. 

“I’ll need him to sign some more paperwork,” Phasma said, she held out a hand and Hux handed over a sandwich and bottle of water. Phasma nodded her thanks, “I’ll have it ready before we go to dinner,”

“Are we eating at the hotel?” Hux asked.

“Let me know when you’ve asked him about next August,” Phasma asked and Hux looked back at her and waited for an explanation. Phasma met his stare with a devious but unreadable look.

“I don’t appreciate either of you keeping secrets from me,”

“You don’t keep your own?”

“Have your PA team on standby,”

“Already done sir,”

 

Hux stepped in the open door and a wave of hot air immediately hit him. As his eyes adjusted to the change in light he saw that most of the crew were leaning heavily on the equipment. The few who noticed him eyed the bottle of water in his hands hungrily. Empty water bottles seemed to be scattered on every surface and the smell of sweat only increased as Hux circled past them to get a view of the set. 

“Cut! Okay everyone out. Get lunch, rehydrate. I want everyone back at two!” The shout went up and a stampede had cleared most of the room in less than half a minute. It was only then that Hux’s eyes fell on Ren. Sat on a low bench on set as he stripped off his top and dropped it to his side and ran a hand over his face and back over his hair.

Hux was about to step into view when the director caught Ren’s attention. 

“Great work Kylo,” He said with an easy smile as he crossed the set.

“Thanks,” Kylo said, his voice and a slow nod betrayed his exhaustion. The director dropped a heavy hand to Kylo’s shoulder and Hux noted his wince. 

“We’ve got plenty of shots we can use. Go find yourself a patch of shade and a bucket of ice hey?” 

“I will. In a minute,” Kylo said with another nod and the director began walking back towards his assistant and the exit.

“Try not to move the set. Design have enough falling apart in this heat,”

“Yeah, most of the cast for one,” Ren said and the director laughed.

“Got that one right,” The guy said and with another quiet word to an assistant they both left the building. .

“I know you’re there,” Kylo said to the otherwise empty room. Hux sauntered across the set, taking in the green screens and the architecture. Ren still had his eyes shut, 

Condensation dripped down Hux’s hands from the water bottles and Hux held one so that it dripped down Kylo’s neck and he shivered and his eyes shut tighter. 

“Tease,” Kylo muttered. Hux set the sandwiches and one bottle of water down on the bench. Hux stepped in close and leant in. When he looked up Kylo was watching him but didn’t move away as Hux lifted the bottle towards him. He pressed the cool bottle to Kylo’s neck and as Kylo gasped Hux leant in and kissed him. His skin was damp with sweat and he pressed into Hux’s cooler touch and shivered.

“You need to get out of this heat,” Hux said quietly. 

“I’m not sure I can move,” Kylo replied and Hux pulled away. Kylo whined and looked up at Hux desperately. 

“Well I’m not carrying you out of here,” Hux said firmly.

“You’d leave me here suffering?” Kylo asked with mock offense.

“I might leave you both bottles of water,” Hux conceded

“How kind,” Kylo said. Hux rolled his eyes and pushed the bottle of water into his hands. Kylo opened and downed half of it . A bead of water dripped from his chin and trailed down his chest. Hux followed it with his eyes for a moment and then shook his head.

“Come on,” Hux offered Kylo his hands and with some effort pulled him up to his feet, “I have some good news for you once you’ve eaten,”

 

They found themselves an empty office, cool airconditioning left on and enough privacy to talk without concerning themselves with eavesdroppers. Kylo had spent the first ten minutes in silence. His head tipped back against the seat and taking slow and steady sips of water until the bottle was empty and Hux swapped it for his own.

“How was your meeting this morning?” Kylo asked. 

“Tedious, but it was certainly successful,” Hux said, “I also had a call back from Harrison,” Hux said and was met with Kylo’s blank stare, “The casting director for The Awakening,” He prompted and Kylo’s attention piqued. 

“And?”

“And why have you booked off all of August next year without reason?” Hux asked.

“They want to film then?”

“Why have you interfered with my calendar?”

“It’s important,”

“You’d never have messed with a schedule when Snoke was your manager and now you think you’re working on your own terms,” Hux snapped. Kylo scowled and turned his face away from Hux, “Whatever these personal reasons are you told Phasma, is it more important than the role you’ve been aiming for your entire career?” Hux asked. “This is movie that will give you the status you’ve dreamt of, so whatever this is…”

“Can’t you get them to schedule filming for the month after?” Kylo asked. His eyes wide and his bottom lip worried between his teeth as he shot Hux a pleading look.

“I’d have to have a damn good reason. One you haven’t even given me yet,” Hux said as he crossed his arms and levelled a look of his own at Kylo. Kylo sighed and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. His eyes darted from hux to the floor and back again.

“Where’s your phone?” He asked after a good half a minute had passed.

“Why?” Hux asked, his hand already reaching to his pocket.

“Gimme your phone,” Kylo said and Hux handed it over and waited as Kylo frowned and typed faster than Hux could keep track of, let alone read upside down. He stared away to some crew members lingering outside the office until his phone was held out to him.

“You plan everything, every day of my life. I wanted to do this for you,” Kylo said and Hux eyed him warily before he looked down and began reading through half a dozen files. Pictures and lists of people and places, colour schemes and tailors. Each looked to be researched and selected carefully as if Hux had been researching them himself.

“If you’re not ready I can just cancel all this but you proposed to me,” Kylo said. Hux felt a tightness in his throat and a deep churning in his gut. He took a deep breath and willed it down.

“You’ll cancel all this because this movie is what you’ve been working towards for years, and I won’t be the one to stand in the way of that because of some sentimental right of passage and a holiday,” Hux said calmly but he couldn’t meet Kylo’s eye.

“Tell me you don’t want to marry me,” Kylo said quietly. 

“No,” Hux snapped “This isn’t about me,”

“Who else would it be about?”

“This movie, this script, this...role is everything you've wanted for years,”

“Not everything. Not now. There’ll be another movie. I’ve been filming non stop for the past three years. I’m good enough and if they’ve noticed me for this one they’ll be another I know it. I can feel it,,” Kylo said and Hux found he could do little more than stand and dumbly shake his head, “This isn’t about proving myself anymore. I already have,”

“I’m not being the reason you turn this down,” Hux said, gesturing to Kylo his phone still in his hand

“Then give me the number I’ll phone them,” Kylo said as he grabbed for Hux’s hand and slid the phone from his grasp with ease.

“I can’t watch this,” Hux said and he turned on his heel, “Don’t be late back to set,” Hux said and headed back to the trailer with the hope that Phasma wouldn’t be there.

 

She was, but in the middle of a phone call and as Hux flicked mindlessly through his emails on the spare tablet she made no comment on his demeanor. Just as she hung up the phone a knock sounded on the trailer door and she answered it. Hux didn’t look up.

“Why did someone just have to return your phone?”

“Ren was using it,”

“And you didn’t stay to make sure he didn’t lose it?”

“I have some rather important business to be getting on with Phasma, a little less inane questioning on your part would be appreciated,”

“Yes sir,” She answered sharply, “Is there anything else or should I return to the hotel and make arrangements for this evening?”

“A late dinner in the hotel’s restaurant will be sufficient. Filming might take longer than expected in this heat or Ren might decide to stay on site instead of returning to the hotel,”

“That bad huh?”

“This is not something for you to make light of and comment on Phasma,”

“Sir.” Phasma answered again “Excuse me,” She gathered her stuff into a neat stack and left. 

Even without her presence everything grated on his nerves. The air con’s low hum was too noisy, the birds were cawing, people kept passing the trailers complaining about the heat and then a great piece of machinery was moved passed at a snail’s pace, whatever it was sounded of a heavy poor functioning engine and solid metal grinding on itself.

Hux grit his teeth and continued to reply curtly to a mass of emails crowding his inbox with idiotic requests and confirmations of pieces of information he was already aware of. 

The clock on the wall ticked louder on the hour and at each quarter and by five o’clock Hux had a ball of tension in his gut that he couldn’t shift. He closed down his tablet when he realised he was making more spelling mistakes in his correspondence than he could be concerned about to correct. He set it neatly to one side and took out his phone, idly checked the battery level and then a curiosity in his gut prompted him to check the recent calls list. 

The two most recent calls from and to the same number. The latest one lasted just over five minutes and Hux could picture the time it had taken for Kylo to get through to the office, the wait, the thirty seconds on hold whilst the woman’s secretary put him through. Then would have followed the greetings and the pleasantries, Kylo’s bombshell and the woman would have reeled, argued, Kylo’s justification would have fallen flat and the woman would have kindly rejected the request. Hux could only hope that Kylo hadn’t lashed out with his words and lost the part altogether; Hadn’t given himself a bad name to a casting director that had seen his talent and wanted to offer him a role in line with Kylo’s vision. He should have told Phasma what Ren was doing; perhaps she could craft a well worded apology that would mean Ren wouldn’t be blacklisted from any further films in the franchise.

The door of the trailer opened and Hux only glanced up briefly to confirm it was Kylo returning. Still dressed in character and in far brighter colours than Kylo would ever pick for himself, or Phasma would pick out for him.

“Are you still angry with me?” Kylo asked not a moment after Hux heard the click of the door shut behind him.

“Only as much as I am with myself,” Hux said. He couldn’t fake distraction on his phone so he set it aside together with his tablet. He looked up with a practiced calm to see Kylo biting the corner of his bottom lip. He was stood barely a foot from the door. Standing his ground but with room enough to storm away should Hux touch a nerve.

“I’ve got everything I wanted. They agreed to move my filming. Nothing bad has happened.” Kylo said.

“Then I’ve nothing to fix have I,” Hux said, his expression schooled into something resembling unaffected. 

“Hux, what is the problem?”

“I am, apparently.”

“That’s ridiculous,”

“It is. That you’d consider letting your feelings for me hold you back,” Hux snapped. He gripped his hands together to keep from throwing them of and gesturing towards Kylo. Too many times he hadn’t been so careful and Kylo would flinch and then suddenly even argument would be too personal an attack. 

“Hux, I haven’t,” Kylo said, “I’ve never been better than with you as my manager,”

“If by better you mean less destructive. Less self harming,”

“I never self harmed,”

“You have scars across your knuckles form all the fights you’ve had with solid brick walls. I don’t believe they ever provoked you in any capacity,” Hux said, “Now you’re just self sabotaging to make up for it,”

“If I don’t have a choice on this then how are you any better than Snoke,” Kylo snapped back 

“I am not Snoke!” Hux said, he shoved himself up to his feet his palms flat on the table 

“I know!”

“Snoke hurt you, he’s still hurting you. Every choice he made was to use you,” Hux said. His mind was racing and he tried to take a deep breath to steady himself. Maybe he wasn’t doing the right thing. 

“Hux I know. This was my choice,” Kylo said his tone lower and when Hux looked up Kylo met his gaze and held it. After a few moments A small smile pulled at Kylo’s lips.

“Stop that,”

“What now?” Kylo sighed as he shook his head and looked away, “I’m tired and I want to eat and nap before i’m back film in an hour and a half,”

“Go and sort yourself out then,”

“What’re you going to do?”

“I’m going to-” Hux glanced around the trailer and searched his mind for something productive, “I don’t know,” He said after a moment. He’d usually be with Kylo on set or working on his correspondence or with Phasma on their latest project. His current disposition left him at a loss. Kylo stepped towards him and then picked up his tablet from the seat. Hux watched him type and he could feel Kylo’s body heat beside him.

“Look over this for me. Tell me what you like,” Kylo held out the tablet to Hux and a reel of pictures appeared on the screen. 

“Kylo,” Hux said quietly. Any louder and their temporary truce might be broken.

“If I get my way I’m going to marry you next year. August 5th, Milan,” Kylo flicked through the pictures as he spoke. “You’re going to be in a white suit with gold trim,” Hux scoffed as the extravagance and Kylo slid his hands around his waist as he skipped past several more pictures. “Small ceremony, long honeymoon,”

“Who were you planning on inviting?”

“On the honeymoon?”

“To the ceremony,”

“My mother will want to come,” Kylo said “Along with her surrogate daughter,”

“If she must. Phasma can entertain them,”

“I hadn’t gotten especially far with the plans. I didn't expect you to be planning quite so far ahead for a while,”

“I have things on my calendar for five years from now,”

“I still want to plan this for you,” Kylo said, “Just tell me what you like so far,”

“Milan?”

“You don’t like Milan?”

“I like Milan,” Hux said and Kylo relaxed against him, “I like all of this,” Hux said, “Still want to marry me then?” He asked as he looked over his shoulder as Kylo pulled away.

“I like all of this,” Kylo waved a hand up and down over Hux and then turned to retrieve some snack from the cupboards.

“We argue a lot,” Hux said, unable to keep his eyes on Kylo and instead trained them to a point on the wall to his left. “It’s not…” He wasn’t sure of the words he wanted to use.

“My parents argued every time they were in the same room together but they never really told each other things. ” Kylo said, his attention the food stocks on the shelves, “You love me, I’m not worried about that,” Kylo said. He picked through the cupboards and dropped the empty boxes to the counter. “If I wear the wrong shirt or leave my toothbrush facing the wrong way you tell me. Why wouldn’t you tell me if you didn’t love me anymore?”

“Your confidence in me is...unnerving,” Hux said, and then after another pause and a steadying breath, “I’m trying to make things better,”

“This is better,” Kylo insisted as he caught Hux’s eye as he dropped the last cardboard box to the counter. “I need more to eat, do you think the canteen shack will still be open?”

“There’s an extra box of cookies in the cupboard in the wardrobe that Phasma’s been keeping. That should tide you over until dinner,”

“Where is Phasma?” Kylo asked through a mouthful of food.

“Went back to the hotel,” Hux said.

“Escaping your dark cloud,” Kylo hummed, his hand buried deep in the box of cookies.

“I do not have a dark cloud,” Hux said. He crossed his arms and leant back against the table, still facing Kylo.

“I suppose it could be more of a lightning storm,” Kylo said and shrugged, “No-one’s safe,”

“Well whose fault is that?” Hux asked. 

“Yours,” Kylo said, “Patience is a virtue,” He added with smirk.

“Virtues are for people without ambition,”

“Diligence is one of those seven heavenly values, and you’ve got chastity down to a tee,” Kylo mused, “Not a lustful bone in you,”

“And of the seven deadly sins I have pride, greed, envy and anger,”Hux listed them off on his fingers and it earned him a chuckle from Kylo.

“If you’re going to hell, so am I,”

“I hear it’s warm there,” Hux said lightly

“You look good with a tan,” Kylo said, his head tipped forwards and he looked up at Hux. Hux rolled his eyes and Kylo glanced back to the floor as he reached for another cookie, “I always figured if hell was fiery then Heaven would have to be icy cold; opposites, y’know,” Kylo said, “We can get a tan in Milan,” He said, his tone more amused. 

“I don’t tan I burn,”

“I’ll bring plenty of sun cream,” Kylo assured him, “Will I have to help you with your back?”

“I’m rarely without a shirt outside of the bedroom and the bathroom,”

“We’ll have a villa to ourselves. Extensive grounds. No-one for miles and staff only as and when we request them,” Kylo muttered into his ear, “Would that convince you?”

“Perhaps,” Hux said and raised an eyebrow when Kylo looked over, “You’ll be walking around naked as usual I take it,”

“Everything except my wedding ring,” Kylo said. He ran a finger beneath the chain at his neck and the ring popped out from beneath Kylo’s shirt. He caught it between his fingers and he pressed it to his lips. Hux bit down on his bottom lip to keep from saying any more. Kylo smirked and set the box of cookies down on the shelf by the door. 

“Can you picture it?” Kylo asked and Hux hummed as he stepped in and crowded Hux against the table. His fingers hooked through Hux’s belt loops to hold him close. “Any requests?”

“Any last requests?” Hux said and Kylo smirked and shrugged one shoulder. “I want you to have an inscription written inside my ring,”

“Saying what?” Kylo asked, a brief frown crossed his features.

“That’s up to you,” Hux said, “Something of you, that’ll be pressed into my skin,”

“You don’t want to put anything on my ring?”

“Only if you want,” Hux said, “Everything I have to say you already know,”

“What if I don’t tell you what it says? You’ll never know if you never take it off,”

“Perfect,” Hux murmured as he pulled Kylo in, his fingers in Kylo’s hair and his fingers cool against Kylo’s overheated skin.


End file.
